361 Comments

The higher the Habs draft this year the more opportunities for you guys to point out who they should have drafted a couple years from now with the benefit of hindsight. Can you imagine if they pick first? Every other draft eligible player will be available for “can’t believe they picked ______ when _____ was still on the board.” I say we should all post on here right before the Habs first pick this year. HIO should keep them on file and in future years you get a temporary suspension for saying the Habs should have picked someone unless it was the guy you said they should have picked :p

From my point of view, the Habs are not that bad a team – it is mostly a bad season. However, I do think there are a few key things we need before being a true contender. A legitimate fourth line, a bonafide #1 centre, and a stay at home D who hits like Emelin. I don’t think the Habs’ past forays into the playoffs were a fluke, but in the end they showed we are a few pieces short of matching up to any team. IMO we match up well with certain teams, but we are not a well-rounded team. I think a few wise personnel moves would do a lot to help the team. The Goat showed his desperation this season and it has ended up hurting us, and he also made a couple of risky decisions that hurt us too. I don’t think we can blame the Goat completely for those risks, but he is fully responsible for the silly moves he made this season.

I disagree with the Jackal…I think we have a skeleton core group of young athlete’s to gamble with and a whole boatload of anchors!As well the toughness and heart dept weren’t added with the new added size and we are still in the same division as Boston and Philly,so why is this never addressed ! And the worst part is our tiny tot Defence..wtf. Mix the albatross contracts of Kaberle,Gomez and Markov and we have a problem NASA. But the worst part is Management,Gauthier and gang are gonna put a hurt on this franchise for many years to come with the signings of some of Ufa’s”just look at Gorges for 4 million per…should of been 3 million”and I am so confident as too bet anyone here the GOAT will sign Carey Price too a $60 million for 8 year deal…I can taste it! I think Timmons should replace Gauthier and Roy -Robinson coaching combo should replace Cunny.And get the best players,period!

Every team in the NHL falls under ‘not that bad of a team’…And yes the last playoff run was a fluke, it was on the back of one goalie. Just like in 1986 and 1993, seems the habs only hope is to catch lightning in a bottle, cause they didnt do it by being a dominant team.

[Disclaimer]: I’m a hockey fan. I care about the habs, but probably not as much as you.

Your disclaimer is fitting. I think the “fluke” you are referring to was 2 years ago with Halak. Even when the Habs finished 1st in the East 07-08, they weren’t a dominant team. Detroit is the only dominant team since the late 80’s.
However I do agree that most teams in the league are mediocre. There’s maybe 4-5 teams that are great and 4-5 teams that are terrible.

There seems to be some really good players on the trading block this year… Not just before the trade deadline but in the offseason as well…. Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, Chris Stewart, Zach Parise. Shea Weber, Ryan Suter.

What sucks about our situation is that the team has great assets, great young players. It would be easy to be optimistic under a strong management team, but even though it seems fairly obvious what to do next you just get this feeling were going to have more problems going forward.

Just curious what you guys think: If Gomez, in hypothetical fantasy land, were to hit the open market this summer as a UFA, what, if anything, do you think he would be signed to? Is he worth Blunden money? Moen money? Gill money? Anything?

Actually I was going to post this same question. I’d say someone would pay 3 million… mediocre 2nd line center money. But I don’t think he’s worth that. He doesn’t play the way the rest of the team does. He doesn’t do what needs to be done to win. He doesn’t play north-south. It’s why he’s so unsuccessful. So I’d say he’s worth… nuthin. Don’t sign him. Just stay away at any price.
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!

Will he have scored by then?
I’d think he’d get a one-way offer from some NHL team, probably New Jersey. Not for a lot, but i’d guess around the one 750K mark.

I don’t like Gomez on the Habs, but I think he’s stll an NHL quality player. If he played more physical for the Canadiens and was paid 750K, I actually wouldn’t mind him as a third or fourth line player.

As it is, his cap hit is so IGNORANT, especially compared to his production, I want Gomez GONE at season’s end… Gomez is still a better player than Engqvist or Dumont. I hope the new Canadiens management has the sense to remove him from this team in the offseason.

Look no further than Bob Mac’s TSN article about the trade situation. He says:

“the Hurricanes have two rental (and pending free agent) defencemen who are almost certain to be moved before the deadline – Jaroslav Spacek and Bryan Allen. Both are perfect depth players and Spacek – based on his strong playoff track record – is a blueliner who’s bound to be very popular”

So the Hurricanes turned an untradeable contract, into an asset that is going to be (according to one of the best experts around) “very popular”. UNBELIEVABLE! It’s Gomez 2.0. And this is the guy who is still at the healm. Really – PLEASE stop drinking Molson beer. Don’t put more money into the pocket of the guy who is dumb enough to let Gauthier still run this team.

PS: In related news, Grabovski had a great game and now has 19 goals on the season. Pretty good pick up for a 2nd round draft pick! We lose again! I’m sick of losing, sick of Gauthier. Really just to look at this guy on my tv makes me want to puke.

When that trade happened I knew deep down this season was over….I could not wrap my head around picking up Kabrele. Spacek can also play on the pp and I think actually has similar numbers since being moved…the big difference is the contract and Spacek can actually play defense. who do you think someone would rather at the deadline…spacek who is off the books at the end of the season or a big cap hit for another year in Kabrele

They have similar numbers since the trade? It blows my mind when people can make mistakes like that in this day and age, when you can easily look up the information to find out if what you’re saying is true or not.

Seriously dude, how are 14 points in 24 games similar to 5 in 17? the only similarity in Kabs and Spacek’s numbers are that they both have 1 goal.

i was talking about the pp there bud where kabby has a whopping 5 assists where he is supposed to be a specialist. spacek has 2 pp points and i might add has only been on the ice for 2 goals against……kabby has been on for 11 goals against.
he is nowhere near worth his cap hit and i might add the habs have the worst pp in the league.

didn’t we see this already in your last post?
or was it the one before that?
wait, i think it must have been the one before that.
no, it was most likely the one before that.
and/or the one before that.

Kay.
9/10ths of the people here were, so it’s hard to differentiate who is who. Look, the team had to at least give a shot at trying to improve the powerplay, clearly it hasn’t worked, but it didn’t work with Spacek either, but they had to do something.

Do you think we would have received more for spacek in 3 weeks then we will get for kaberle next year or the year after? Keeping in mind kaberle probably puts up another 45 point season next year while spacek is auditioning for teletubbies on ice.

I dunno. Kaberle seems to be getting famous for being lazy and making mistakes. Commentators are all suggesting he’s past his ‘best before’ date. Even if you’re right and we can trade him for more next year or the year after (which if he keeps making big mistakes, we won’t be able to)… he’s getting older and what do we have to endure between now and then.

No, Kaberle was signed by just prior to this season to his current 3 year deal and then when the Hurricanes realized how stupid of an idea that was they called Pierre Gauthier and bounced him to Montreal.

funny thing is, when there is more chatting and less ALL CAP HATE FILLED INVECTIVES IN YOUR POSTS, i sometimes agree with your positions.
But you’ve been really busting my chops with your tired repetitive rants of late.

Gomez sure is a good talker. He tells all of us what we want to here. He is paid to produce and help the team win hockey games. If I wanted to watch “solid people”, I would go to the local old folks home and spend the evenings hanging around with a bunch of solid people there. He says he looks at where the Canadiens are in the standings and it bug him, well then why didn’t he do anything about it when the games still mattered. To go a whole year without scoring for someone who plays the powerplay and top 6 minutes is unheard of. He refuses to pay the price to score and then expects us to believe his BS. An April without playoff hockey in Montreal is a crime.